The Boys Book of Industrial Information by Elisha Noyce

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Title: The Boys Book of Industrial Information

Author: Elisha Noyce

Release Date: July 19, 2015 [EBook #49489]

Language: English

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O

NEARLY READY,

Cloth Gilt, Price Five Shillings, Elaborately and Profusely Illustrated by The BROTHERS DALZIEL, uniform with the Boy’s

Book of Industrial Information.

UTLINES OF CREATION. By Elisha Noyce.
The object of the Author is to give a simple, clear, and lucid description of the Universe under the following divisions:—

The Sky.
The Earth.
The Vegetable Kingdom.

The Air.
The Waters.
The Animal Kingdom.

London: WARD & LOCK, 158, Fleet Street.

(‡ Composite of several Industrial Scenes.)

(‡ Illustrated Title Page.)

THE BOY’S BOOK

OF

INDUSTRIAL INFORMATION.

BY

ELISHA NOYCE.

ILLUSTRATED

WITH THREE HUNDRED AND SIXTY-FIVE ENGRAVINGS,

BY

THE BROTHERS DALZIEL.

LONDON:

WARD & LOCK, 158, FLEET STREET.

1858.

PREFACE.

In putting this work before the public, the Author has endeavoured to supply a clear and brief description of the materials,

processes, and apparatus made use of in the various examples of industry and skill constantly before our eyes, so that the reader
may acquire a knowledge of such things, and an interest in those, who, by their hard work and patient ingenuity, supply them; for
every article and process can be made to have a value and an interest, in proportion to the amount of knowledge we possess
respecting them.

There is no attempt in this work to describe every article and process, but such only as are most interesting and instructive.

All the mere trades and handicrafts—the results of which are so various, and depend so completely upon the skill of the artisan,
that any description of their particulars would scarcely be profitable or interesting to the reader—have been avoided. The
illustrations of this work have been prepared with the greatest care, and drawn from reality. By the kind permission of Lord
Panmure, the artists were allowed to make whatever drawings were necessary in the Arsenal at Woolwich; and thanks are due
to many of our eminent manufacturers for similar favours with respect to their several factories and machinery.

In the first division of this work have been placed all those materials which exist in nature, either isolated or combined, and

which have merely to be extracted or separated, as the earths, metals, &c. Under the second division, “Manufactured Products,”
such results of manufacture as are known by the common designation “stuff,” and are of an uniform and particular quality, as
soap, soda, &c., not existing in Nature as such. In the third division, individual articles, the result of skilled labour, each
compounded and made up of several substances, or of particular forms. In the fourth section are the processes made use of in
the production of the various necessaries or elegancies of life. Some of these might have been placed under the second and third
divisions, but the Author thought proper to place them here, on account of the processes being more readily described than their
results. The fifth division is devoted to the most usual forms of Apparatus and Machinery of general application, avoiding all mere
tools and machines for specific purposes. The last division is a mere outline of those important engineering works which of late
have acquired an increased interest from the addition of railways and electric telegraphs to their number.

INTRODUCTION.

The inquiring mind uses all its senses to obtain some new idea, and to apply it to some useful purpose; it is this spirit of

research that has led to all the great results in Art and in the mechanical and chemical sciences, which we now enjoy and admire;
but it is only by very slow degrees, and by great perseverance, that such results are obtained, although the accumulation of a few
years makes an enormous aggregate. Look back a generation or two—where was then the steam engine, where the tall stalks
which indicate the sites of complicated and ingenious manufactures? the blacksmith then worked at his anvil, and wrought out
with his hands what he required in iron; but what is now done with this treasure of the mine? behold the Leviathan and the
Britannia Bridge,—count their thousands of tons of plate iron rolled out by machinery, and think of the work of their removal, the
millions of rivets to fix them together, the elevation of the one, and the launching of the other. Could this be done without that
machinery which has become gradually perfected by thought and perseverance? Visit the iron works and see the powerful
“steam hammer” moulding into form a mass of red-hot iron, many tons in weight; see the powerful and beautiful contrivances for
rolling into plates, drawing into bars and wire, or cutting up this stubborn metal, and call it stubborn no more! See the powerful
“locomotive” carrying along the trams hundreds of tons of goods at a rate that can hardly be equalled by the bird that flies
through the air on its light pinions; and the huge steam ships which cut their rapid way across the seas, holding in contempt those
very winds upon which alone the mariner used to depend! See with what rapidity and accuracy almost every kind of “textile”
material is produced by the steam-worked loom, and remember that these have all arisen, with hundreds more, from small
beginnings, and step by step.

Nor does the mechanical genius bound the works of civilisation. From studying the various properties of the elements of

nature, and the results of their combination in various proportions and under various conditions, the chemist arrives, not only at
their uses and applications, but obtains results before quite unthought of! Instance the electric telegraph, and think how it conveys
one’s thoughts half round the globe before you can express an exclamation of surprise that such things can be! See also the
wonderful results of the photographic art, copying the most elaborate picture, machine, or portrait, in a few seconds, and see the
results of electro-deposition, which by an invisible agent, coats with pure gold or silver any article subjected to its action, or
produces in a mould the article itself of the most elaborate form or pattern, and in solid metal, extracted by this all-powerful agent
from liquids which the uninformed would never believe could contain any metal at all. Think of the beautiful colours of our
carpets, draperies, silks, &c.—the chemist has devised the dyes with which they are stained; and in our chemical factories, what
tons of vitriol, soda, bleaching powder, and scores of other chemical agents are daily produced. All this is the result of study and
perseverance. Neither have the Fine Arts been behind in contributing to civilisation, as may be seen in the structure and
decoration of our houses, churches, and public buildings; in our glass and pottery ware; paper hangings, and other artistic
designs; in engraving and the copious illustration of our books, saving a long and tedious description, and often presenting to the
eye forms that words could not express. And now let us consider one by one the “materials” and processes from which all these
results arise.

CONTENTS.

Natural Products:

Earths
Metals and Alloys
Iron
Copper
Lead
Tin
Zinc
Mercury
Gold
Silver
Platinum
Nickel
Coal
Sulphur
Plaster of Paris
Salt
Stone
Wood
Cotton
Flax
Silk
India-rubber
Gutta-percha
Wax
Nitre
Blacklead
Spermaceti

Manufactured Products:

Sugar
Alcohol, or Spirit
Starch
Soap
Stearine
Soda
Wines
Vinegar
Coal Gas
Tar
Acetic Acid, or Wood Vinegar
Varnishes
Oils
Inks
Charcoal
Cements
Coke
Gunpowder
Gun-cotton
Phosphorus
White Lead
Prussian Blue

Prussiate of Potash
Sulphate of Iron
Sulphate of Copper
Chloride of Lime
Sulphuric Acid
Leather
Glue and Size
Parchment
Catgut
Paper
Malt
Chocolate and Cocoa
Steel
Tin-plate, and Galvanised Iron
Glass
Soda-Water
Coal-tar Naptha
Wood Naptha, or Pyroxylic Spirit

Products of Skilled Labour:

Pottery
Bricks and Tiles
Tobacco-pipes
Gold-Leaf
Shot
Files
Type
Lucifer-matches
Candles
Rope
Wire
Cutlery
Nails
Screws
Pins
Needles
Tubing
Steel-pens

Arts and Trade Processes:

Wood and Plate Engraving
Lithography
Printing
Photography
Bookbinding
Paper-staining
Flax Manufacture
Glass-painting
Cotton Manufacture
Woollen Manufacture
Weaving
Bleaching
Calico Printing
Dyeing

Calendering
Bread-making
Sugar Refining
Brewing
Distillation
Gilding
Silvering Looking Glasses
Silver Plating
Electro-plating and Deposition of Metals
Soldering and Brazing
The Smelting of Metals
Founding
Glass-blowing and Casting
Glass Cutting
Bricklaying
Stone-cutting

Apparatus and Machinery:

Steam Engines
Boilers
Furnaces
Bellows and Blowing Machines
Screw Propellers
Anchors
Chains
Cranes
Cranks
Fire-arms and Projectiles
Percussion Caps
Pumps and Fire Engines
Valves
Wheels
Watermills
Windmills
Syphons
Stopcocks or Taps
Filters
Presses
Stills
Blowpipes
Thermometers
Barometers
Pendulums
Ploughs
Harrows
Rollers
Mowing Machines
Thrashing Machines
Reaping Machines
Drills

Engineering Works:

Railways
Electric Telegraphs

Roads
Bridges
Tunnels
Drains
Artesian Wells
Mines
Ships
Canals and Locks

NATURAL PRODUCTS.

EARTHS.

(‡ Illustrations of:)

1. EMERALD. 2. GARNET.
3. FORTIFICATION AGATE.

4. RUBY.
5. DIAMOND. 6. ROCK CRYSTAL.

All earths are metals in combination with oxygen: that is to say, they can all be separated into a metal and oxygen. The chief

earths used are Alumina, found as clay or slate; Lime, found as chalk or limestone; and Silica, found as sand, flint, or rock-
crystal. These, in various proportions, combined with some few other matters, form, by far, the greatest portion of the earth we
dwell on. The earths, when pure, are all white substances, not very heavy, and having scarcely any of the properties of the metals
from which they are derived. The next frequent of the earths are Baryta and Strontia; but these may be said to be useless when
compared with the three former. Alumina, in its various forms of clay, is used for brick and tile-making, and for pottery;
hardened into the form of slate, it is much used for roofing and for making cisterns. Lime, in the form of carbonate, constitutes the
best building stones, including marble, so valuable for ornamental carving and decoration, and when burnt, to separate the
carbonic acid, forms lime itself, which is invaluable as a cement when mixed with sand; lime, in union with another acid
(sulphuric) forms plaster of Paris, also a most useful article in the arts, &c. Silica, in the form of sand, is very extensively used for
glass making, and, in the form of flint, it is ground and used for pottery: all such stones as quartz, rock-crystal, Scotch pebble,
agate, cornelian, &c. are but various forms of Silica, either crystallized or deposited in layers. Most of the precious stones are
composed of the earths in a crystalline state and colored by some foreign ingredient, such are the emerald, ruby, garnet, &c. The
diamond is not an earth but composed of pure carbon.

METALS AND ALLOYS.

Metals may be known from all other substances by certain properties: they have that peculiar brilliancy, called, for that

reason, the “metallic” lustre; they are rapidly heated, and as rapidly cool, hence they are said to be good conductors of heat; they
are all opaque, and most of them very heavy; some indeed, as gold and platinum, are the heaviest substances known, being
about twenty times heavier than water; they have, moreover, other valuable properties such as the capability of being melted, of
being drawn out into wire, of being beaten into thin plates, &c.

All metals are simple bodies; that is to say, they cannot be made out of other substances, although two or more metals may

be combined and be again separated, or they may be combined with numerous other substances, as oxygen, and also again
separated. There are upwards of fifty metals known to chemists, yet but few are used to any extent in the arts or manufactures.
All the metals in use for the very many purposes to which they are applied are not simple metals, but are what are called “alloys,”
that is to say, compounds of two or more metals. The chief metals in use are—

IRON,
MERCURY,

COPPER,
NICKEL,

LEAD,
GOLD,

TIN,
SILVER,

ZINC,
PLATINUM.

But in the state of oxide many are used which are seldom seen in the metallic state, such are the earths and alkalies; and for
colors, and several other purposes, many other preparations are in use. The chief alloys, or compound metals in use, are, brass,
made of copper and zinc; pewter, made of lead and tin; bell metal and gun metal, made of copper and tin; and solder, which is a
kind of pewter, and made of the same metals; the silvering for looking-glasses is made of mercury and tin; the gold and silver
used for coin are not pure metals, but alloyed with two parts of silver or copper to every twenty-two of the pure metal, and this
forms the “standard” gold or silver. The gold used by jewellers has often a much greater proportion of alloy—for this name is
given both to a compound metal and the cheaper metal made to combine with the more precious. The object gained by thus
alloying the coinage, is that of rendering the metals harder, so that they shall not suffer much loss in wearing; thus a small quantity
of copper mixed with either gold or silver, renders them both harder, although itself softer than either. The combination of certain
metals forming alloys, is often not exactly the mean of their respective qualities, for instance, a small quantity of silver is
sometimes fused with cast steel for penknife blades, and although the silver is itself much softer than the steel, yet the combination
is found to be both closer in the grain and harder; it is known as silver-steel in commerce. Bismuth, although itself not very
fusible, increases the fusibility of other metals; a combination of 2 parts tin, 3 lead, and 5 bismuth, forms a metal fusible by
boiling water.

NATIVE OXIDE OF IRON.

NATIVE COPPER.

SULPHURET OF LEAD.

IRON.

Iron stands first in usefulness of all the metals, for

railways, bridges, ships, and a thousand other purposes; it
can be both cast and wrought, having that peculiar property,
the capability of being “welded,” that is to say, of softening
while hot to such an extent that when two pieces are made white hot and laid together, a few blows of the hammer will cause
them to unite into one piece, and it is by means of this most useful quality that large masses of wrought iron are produced, such,
for instance, as anchors and cranks for steam-boats. This property of welding, and the abundance of the ores of iron, render it
one of the most useful materials supplied by nature for the various purposes of manufacture. In combination with carbon it forms
that hardly less useful article known by the name of steel.

Cast Iron has scarcely any of the metallic lustre, and is only fitted for solid work; it is brittle, like steel, without its elasticity,

and is too soft and too porous to be made into any of the numerous tools and instruments for which steel is so eminently suitable.
Cast iron contains many impurities, the chief of which are carbon, sulphur, and silica, got from the coke whilst being smelted in
contact with it, and from the fluxes used in the process; it is coarse in grain, and much more fusible than wrought iron, which is
iron in a nearly pure state and can be fused only by the very highest heat capable of being produced. Cast iron is converted into
wrought or malleable iron by being re-melted and stirred for a long time in contact with the air, this process is called “puddling,”
its object is to get rid of all the impurities (chiefly carbon and sulphur) which, by being brought into contact with the air at a high
temperature, are said to be burnt out, that is to say, they combine with oxygen and form carbonic and sulphurous acids. After
puddling, the iron is rolled or hammered out, folded up, and again extended, and as a general rule it may be said, the more this is
continued the purer and softer is the iron.

COPPER

Copper is a reddish-coloured heavy metal, much used for

sheathing the under part of ships, for making boilers, &c. It is
about eight-and-a-half times heavier than water, and is too
valuable to be used for many purposes where either iron, tinned

iron, or zinc are applied, but for which purposes its great durability would fit it, as it is easily rolled out or beaten into plates, and
is not quickly acted on by the weather. It is used as coin in pence, halfpence, and farthings; all vessels for cooking purposes,
when made of copper, are tinned inside to prevent the food becoming poisonous from verdigris, which is the rust of copper, and
is very injurious. Copper is found chiefly combined with sulphur, forming “native sulphuret of copper.” Copper melts at a full red
heat.

LEAD.

Lead is a heavy metal, of a dull blueish tint, and

very soft; it is extensively used for covering roofs, for
cisterns, and for pipes for conveying water, as it is easily
bent and joined, and is not acted on by the water which
passes through it. Lead melts at a heat below that of redness, and, in combination with oxygen and carbonic acid, forms the
“white lead” of commerce so largely used as a paint. Oxide of lead, called “litharge,” enters into the composition of flint glass,
and in combination with a larger quantity of oxygen forms “red lead,” a substance much used in painting. Lead is found in many
parts of England, especially Cornwall, where many lead mines exist; it is got from the sulphuret called “galena,” which is lead in
union with sulphur. What is called “black-lead” is not lead at all, but is an ore of iron, being iron in combination with carbon.
Lead is about eleven-and-a-half times heavier than water.

OXIDE OF TIN.

SULPHURET OF ZINC.

TIN.

Tin is a white metal, almost as white as silver, it is found chiefly in

Cornwall. It is a light, soft metal, and, like lead, is easily melted; it is
used chiefly for coating vessels of harder metal, such as iron and
copper. It is used to mix with copper to produce bronze, bell metal, and

gun metal, and with lead to produce pewter, which used to be so extensively used as table-ware before the manufacture of
earthenware became general for that purpose. Tin does not easily tarnish or rust by exposure to the air, hence the use of tinned
iron-plate. Tin, united with mercury, forms the silvering for looking-glasses. Tin is about seven-and-a-half times heavier than
water.

ZINC.

Until the last quarter of a century, zinc was but little used, but

of late it has taken the place for many useful purposes where lead
was formerly used, principally owing to its cheapness and
lightness. Zinc is a hard metal of a grayish colour, not easily bent
but rather brittle, but when made nearly red hot, it is capable both of being rolled out into sheets and being beaten into form by
the hammer. Zinc is about six-and-three-quarter times heavier than water. Like many other metals, zinc is volatile, that is to say,
when heated to a certain extent it passes off into vapour, and there is no doubt, the reason that zinc was not known or used of
old was that it was chiefly lost in “smelting,” or getting it from its ores. Zinc is now obtained by a sort of distillation; the ores are
mixed with the flux, &c., in a large earthen crucible or pot, from which an iron tube passes into a vessel of water, the lid is
securely fastened on, and as the heat is urged the zinc is driven off in vapour, passes down the tube and condenses in the water.
The zinc of commerce is obtained chiefly from the ore known by the name of “calamine stone,” which is zinc in combination with
oxygen and carbonic acid. A substance called “zinc white” has been lately introduced as a substitute for white lead, and would
certainly supersede it, but the zinc is found to be deficient in “body,” which means, the power of covering anything over which it
is laid-on in a thin layer, but as zinc white does not blacken in foul air, and white lead does, it has a great advantage, and it is to
be hoped that some improvement in its manufacture may improve its “body.” Zinc is chiefly used for roofs, gutters, water-pipes,
cisterns, and various vessels for holding water, as it does not rust so easily as iron. What is called “galvanised iron,” is iron
dipped into melted Zinc in the same way that tin-plate is.

MERCURY.

Mercury, or quicksilver, is known from all other metals by being fluid at the ordinary temperature of the air. This is only

owing to its extreme fusibility, for at 72 degrees below the freezing point of water, it also becomes solid, and may be hammered
out or cut by a knife; it is very heavy, being about fifteen-and-a-half times that of water, so that most of the metals will float on its
surface; it has a bright lustre and is almost as white as silver. It is found both in the fluid metallic state, and in combination with
sulphur, in which last state it is called “cinnabar;” this is a heavy mass of a deep red color, and when ground to powder, of a
most magnificent red, and is the vermillion so well known as a pigment; this vermillion is, however, most frequently manufactured
by combining the mercury and sulphur, both first purified, in this way a more brilliant color is produced than can be got from the
cinnabar. The metal is extracted by heating the cinnabar with iron-filings or lime in a retort, by which means the mercury distils
over and the sulphur is left behind united with the iron or lime.

Mercury is used for many purposes in the arts and sciences, for barometers, thermometers, compensating pendulums for

clocks, &c., and also in the processes of water-gilding, looking glass silvering, and in the Daguerreotype process. The
combinations of mercury with other metals are called “amalgams.”

Gold (‡ Nugget).

GOLD.

SILVER.

GOLD.

Gold is the heaviest of the metals with the

exception of Platinum, being rather more than
nineteen times heavier than water; it is of a bright
yellow color, and is not tarnished by exposure to the
air or moisture, hence its usefulness in ornamenting

frames, cornices, &c. Gold is chiefly used, in the form of coin, as the medium of exchange; for ornamental purposes, such as
jewellery; for gilding, and for staining glass, to which it gives a beautiful ruby-red color. Gold coin contains about one twelfth
part, by weight, of copper, this is added to give it hardness and consequently cause it to lose less by wear in use. Gold is not
dissolved by any of the pure acids, but a mixture of hydrochloric and nitric acids will dissolve it in consequence of giving out
chlorine, an element which freely dissolves gold.

Gold is capable of being beaten out into leaves of extreme thinness, and also of being drawn into wire of such thinness that

five hundred feet of it weigh but one grain.

SILVER.

Silver is the whitest of the metals; it is about ten-and-a-half

times heavier than water; it does not easily tarnish by the air, and is
not converted into dross by heat continued for any length of time,
or, in chemical language, it is not oxydised; it is chiefly used for
coin and for ornamental purposes where its cleanliness and beauty are strong qualities to recommend it. Many kinds of lead ore
contain silver, and when this is in sufficiently large proportion to pay for its extraction, the reduced lead is subjected to the flame
of a furnace which is blown on to it with a strong blast, the flame melts the lead and converts it into an oxide called “litharge,”
which is in the form of reddish scales, and as these are formed the blast blows them off; in this way the lead is gradually
consumed, leaving the silver with but a small quantity of lead, this is put on to a cup made of bone ashes called a “cupel,” hence
this operation is called “cupellation,” the heat is then raised, and the lead which remains with the silver, forming a liquid glass with
the bone ashes, sinks into them, leaving the silver bright and pure. Silver in some districts is extracted from its ores by what is
called “amalgamation;” the finely powdered ore is mixed with water, some cuttings of iron and quicksilver, and turned round in a
barrel for a considerable time, when the quicksilver is drawn off through a small hole, and is found to contain all the silver in the
ore, together with some other metals. The quicksilver is got rid of, first by pressing and then by distillation; so that it is all
recovered for a second operation. What remains is separated from the other metals, which it may have been mixed with by
different processes, according to the nature of these metals.

The standard silver of the Mint is what is called 22 carats fine (nearly), that is to say, 22 parts in 24, the two parts being

copper; this is done to harden it. The silvering of looking-glasses is made of a compound of tin and mercury, but a process for
really silvering looking-glasses has been patented by Mr. Drayton; it consists of precipitating silver from its solution by means of
the oil of Cassia, or some other volatile oil: the process is far too expensive for general use or for large plates. Silver leaf is made
and used in the same way that gold leaf is.

PLATINUM.

Platinum is a metal of a white color, and is the heaviest substance known, being more than twenty-one times heavier than

water. It is capable of being welded and wrought out by the hammer like iron; it is not acted on by any of the acids, but, like
Gold, is dissolved by chlorine or a mixture of hydrochloric and nitric acid; it does not tarnish by exposure to air, and is extremely
difficult to melt, requiring the very highest heat that can be produced; these qualities render it one of the most useful of the metals
to the chemist, furnishing him with retorts, crucibles, and evaporating dishes suitable for many purposes; its high price, however,
renders it not so generally used as it would otherwise be.